News stories from Thursday September 20, 1979

Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:

The Panama Canal pact was snagged as the House defeated by 11 votes a bill to carry out the treaty that is to take effect in 10 days. Unless reversed, the House action could put into doubt the question of how the canal will be operated and administered. The Senate approved the enabling legislation by a vote of 60 to 35. [New York Times] Protection for Edward Kennedy by the Secret Service was ordered by President Carter shortly before the Massachusetts Senator disclosed plans to form, in early November, an exploratory committee for a presidential campaign. Formation of such a panel is usually the last step before a formal declaration of candidacy. [New York Times] Labor's support for President Carter, never wholehearted, is declining as the possibility grows that Senator Edward Kennedy will be a candidate in 1980. Officials of several major unions said the Senator was becoming the choice among many leaders as well as the rank and file. [New York Times] The defeat of a proposed budget for next year by the House Wednesday night led the House Budget Committee to try again and present a new proposal next week. But the committee chairman predicted an "extremely bitter" fight in Congress, and it is almost certain that the new fiscal year will begin on Oct. 1 with no budget. [New York Times] A lobby seeking Ireland's unification and the withdrawal of British troops from Northern Ireland, led by a Roman Catholic priest from Northern Ireland, a Belfast housewife and a Washington lawyer, has begun a drive in Washington to press its views. Irish, British and American officials and some leading Roman Catholics say that the group is linked with the Irish Republican Army and provides it with an increasingly vocal lobby in Congress. [New York Times] Emergency inspections of 100 DC-9's were nearly completed and caused only minor disruptions in flight schedules. The government ordered the inspections after the rear door and tail cone were blown off an Air Canada DC-9 airliner on Monday. [New York Times] Pope John Paul II was accused of helping to cover up a scandal involving the Pauline Fathers, an order of Roman Catholic monks whose American headquarters is near Philadelphia. Newspaper articles have charged that a former head of the order squandered or mismanaged $20 million in contributions and other funds. Church officials have acknowledged that the articles are basically accurate, but have denied the charges of a cover-up. [New York Times] Women priests are barred from participating fully in services in the Episcopal Church throughout much of the country, despite the official lifting of prohibitions last year. [New York Times] President Carter will visit New York City next Tuesday to speak on energy and transportation issues and hold a "town meeting" in Queens. In announcing the trip, White House aides said that the President did not consider it political, but they acknowledged privately that it would be hard to exclude politics. [New York Times] U.S.-Soviet talks on Cuba took a new turn. Secretary of State Vance began suggesting to Ambassador Dobrynin how to resolve the problem posed by a Soviet combat brigade on the island, according to administration officials. They said that the previous four meetings had been exploratory, devoted primarily to Mr. Vance's asking specific questions about the mission and Mr. Dobrynin providing answers. [New York Times] Emperor Bokassa I of the Central African Empire, who had ruled that country autocratically since 1965, was overthrown in a bloodless coup by David Dacko, a former President, Agence France-Presse reported. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 893.69 (+17.24, +1.97%)
S&P Composite: 110.51 (+2.23, +2.06%)
Arms Index: 0.58

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	918	29.84
Declines	576	10.90
Unchanged	391	4.36
Total Volume		45.10

* in millions of shares

Arms Index is the ratio of volume per declining issue to volume per advancing issue; a figure below 1.0 is bullish.

Market Index Trends
Date	DJIA	S&P	Volume*
September 19, 1979	876.45	108.28	35.37
September 18, 1979	874.15	108.00	38.75
September 17, 1979	881.31	108.84	37.61
September 14, 1979	879.10	108.76	42.01
September 13, 1979	870.73	107.85	35.24
September 12, 1979	870.90	107.82	39.35
September 11, 1979	869.71	107.51	42.54
September 10, 1979	876.88	108.17	33.00
September 7, 1979	874.15	107.66	34.37
September 6, 1979	867.32	106.85	30.36